Abstract: Apparatus is disclosed for bonding a plurality of cores of a multi-core ribbon electric cable in side-by-side relationship by heating the insulation of the cores to bond together the insulation of adjacent cores. Instead of continuously bonding the cores together along their entire length, the apparatus is designed to interrupt the bonding at predetermined intervals so that when the cable is cut at a sectional interval it is not necessary to separate the insulation of one core from the next.

Abstract: In multi-core electric cable in which the cores extend in side-by-side spaced and parallel relationship, instead of producing the cable with the cores continuously interconnected by surrounding insulation so that when cut into lengths the insulation has to be pulled or cut apart in order to separate the cores for connecting, the cable is made at the outset at intervals along its length with the cores separate, never having been interconnected. This is applicable to most known methods of manufacturing flat multi-core electric cable including those in which each core has an individual insulating sheath interconnected to form the multi-core cable by the bonding of the sheaths together or to backing strip material or to both.